Farming Today – What Was Pebble Mill?

Studio 1 – Martin Fenton

Studio 1 control room

Studio 1 light

Studio 1 Neumann U47s

Photos by Martin Fenton, no reproduction without permission. Martin took these photos in 2003. Radio Studio 1 was the largest radio studio at Pebble Mill, and was also used for some television series in the latter years of Pebble Mill.

“Studio 1 was once a venue for glorious orchestral recordings, but by this point it had been deliberately priced out of the market (Abbey Road number 1 was cheaper) and was used for little more than Farming Today

The Neumann U47s , I was told were used at the insistence of Radio 3, when Studio 1 was regularly used for orchestral concerts.” [The mics may be Neumann U87s, see comment below from Andy Groves.]

Martin Fenton

(The Neumann U47s were condenser mics apparently well known for their clear sound. They were apparently the favourite mic of the Beatles manager, George Martin.)

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Caroline Feldon Parsons: ‘Lots of happy memories doing programmes for Radio 3 in that studio. Everything from live Lunchtime Concerts to live drivetime programmes like In Tune, and lots of recorded chamber music. I did a fair bit of page-turning for pianists too!’

Chris Marshall: ‘Yes, it was really busy with Radio 3 programmes until the bizarre decisions around Producer Choice and bimedia put paid to that. Tony Wass could give lots of info on the technical stuff.’

Jane Ward: ‘Occasionally larger scale orchestral and brass band sessions for Radio 2 took place in there as well. I produced a fair number and, like Caroline, was involved in other ways before that, either page turning or acting as orchestral librarian before I became a producer… I arrived at Pebble Mill in February 1987 as the Music Assistant, a post which not only served Radios 2 & 3 but which ultimately extended to become a research and support service for the whole building.’

Andy Groves: ‘I think you will find the mics are a Neumann U87 rather than 47. Both fine microphones.’

Peter Trevena: ‘I think that the lamp is still working on Doctors‘

Factual Network Radio Programmes circa 2004

Radio Studio 5, home of Edwina Currie and Stuart Maconie. Photo by Martin Fenton.

Here is a list of factual network radio programmes produced at Pebble Mill circa 2004. This list forms part of a document, which is included in the BBC Written Archives at Caversham.

BBC Radio Two

Night-time

Mon-Fri: Janice Long, Alex Lester

Sat/Sun: Mo Dutta, Sybil Ruscoe (from 6^th June)

Weekly

Best of Jazz with Humphrey Lyttelton

Big Band Special

The Organist Entertains

Bob Harris Country

Paul Jones Blues Show

Listen to the Band

Stuart Maconie’s Critical List

Mark Lamarr’s Shake Rattle and Roll

Ed Stewart

Assorted documentaries and ad hoc series

BBC Radio Four

Farming Today

Farming Today, This Week

On Your Farm

Open Country

Costing the Earth

Ramblings

On the Ropes

Between Ourselves

Radio Five Live

Late Night Currie

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:

Lynne Holden: ‘Have worked on all but 3 of these – some very briefly. I still work on 3 of these programmes that are still produced in Brum – the Organist Entertains, Listen To The Band and Paul Jones. We also produce Clare Teal, Sounds of the 50s, Moira Stuart, Don Black and ad hoc series and docs. This Christmas we also produced programmes with Barry Cryer, Barbara Windsor and a delightful programme about Sammy Davis Jr as well as a Clare Teal Big Band Xmas Special and a Sounds of the 50s Xmas Special.’

Pete Simpkin: ‘…and of course the at least 18 hours a day 24/7 Local Radio service!’

Network Radio – We are BBC Birmingham

This grab is from a brochure called We are BBC Birmingham, which was given to all staff, and others, when Pebble Mill closed in 2004, and BBC Birmingham moved to the Mailbox.

It shows the diversity of Network Radio being produced at BBC Birmingham at the time, including radio drama and factual rural affairs series on Radio 4, and 30% of Radio 2’s output, as well as Asian Network and interactive services.

Thanks to Dharmesh Rajput for keeping the brochure safe for the last decade, and for sharing it.

Jock Gallagher Prospero Article

This article was written for the February 2014 edition of the BBC retirees newspaper, Prospero.

Videotape in the ’70s (part 4) Ray Lee

Still from Ian Collins, no reproduction without permission.

Peter Wood-Fisher’s electronic clock. Grab from Keith Brook

VT Clock

The countdown clock was initially a mechanical clock on a kind of blackboard in the studio, and was recorded at the beginning of each section of recording. It had sections for the programme title, tape number, take number, sequence title and other important identifying information. This was written on by the floor manager, (or assistant FM) prior to the recording. One of the difficulties was that when a tape was edited, the clock information could not be updated in VT to indicate this was an edited master, unless a separate clock had been recorded previously. The clock was generally started at around 30 seconds and allowed to count past 0, although in shows recorded as live the vision mixer would cut to black at 3. Where a series of clocks for editing purposes were recorded, the cut to black would be done in the edit by VT.

In the late 70’s Peter Wood-Fisher, a keen engineer built an electronic VT Countdown clock using a large quantity of integrated circuits, and housed it in a home made plywood box. It was around 18inch square with a full size keyboard at the front, then an up-stand housing the rest of the electronics, on which there was just room for a pair of 9inch monitors. This allowed VT to add clocks to edited items and recorded inserts without tying up studio time. This was the forerunner of using the BBC Micro as a VT Clock, which only became possible in the mid 80’s. (the BBC Model A was first produced in 1984). In those early days studio recordings often still recorded the clock from the studio, but the VT clock was used for subsequent edits. As there was only one VT Clock, various routing arrangements were made in order to make it available to the other VT areas. It sat on the back shelf in VTA cubicle.

Ray Lee

The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook group:

Peter Poole: “BBC Norwich still used these VT clocks long after Pebble Mill changed to electronic. I went on attachment as a Tech Op. The studio looked like a museum of broadcast equipment!”

Eurwyn Jones: “Just read the article on the Pebble Mill site. I remember the clock well – on live shows like ‘Farming Today’ on Sunday mornings,the clock was used at the end of the show as well. It faced the presenter in the studio and on cue from the PA counting down to the end on the show we would start the clock and they would see how long they had left. Some would ignore it though!!”

Peter Poole: “Pebble Mill engineers had a great talent for building ingenious electronics.”

Ned Abell: “Its ironic this surfaced the day after Ceefax closed…now wheres my BBC B from September 1982?”